Rear of a brick Victorian semi with a garden

Desford

Desford's hilltop homes, with rooflights and skylights

29.4 road miles south of Derby, a hilltop village with a knitting past.

Desford has older brick cottages and later commuter houses, and each hides a dim corner. Tell us which stair, bed or bench stays dark and the survey starts there.

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Cottage depths and long landings in a hilltop village

Mattress on the floor of a loft under a roof window — A mattress on a loft floor, in a room kept dim even with a roof window above.

A rear bedroom tucked under the roof, with its one window looking at a neighbour's brickwork.

Roofs around Desford and what suits them

For older brick houses we would look first at conservation rooflights and roof windows; for a landing that no slope can reach, sun tunnels; for a bright loft room, VELUX windows; and for a rear extension, flat roof rooflights.

A village that has grown over several centuries carries a mix of roofs. Brick houses from earlier centuries often have steeper pitches and small openings, and a low-profile frame sits more comfortably on them than a deep box would. Later houses on the main streets often have loft space that can become a bedroom or a study, and a roof window gives that room both light and air. Where the dark spot is a hall or landing with the loft above in use, a tunnel takes far less space than a light well. Each suggestion comes during the survey, room first and roof second.

The full guide

Lighting a Desford house, starting at the stairs

Upstairs, the dimmest square metre tends to be the landing, and the roof sits just overhead. Here is how the landing, the tiles, the glass and the council fit together before anything is cut.

Landing ceiling
Brick and tile
Pane and quote
Permissions

Callout 1

A landing with two doors and no window

Ask anyone in a house with an upstairs which part feels gloomiest and the landing comes up often. Bedroom doors open off it and it has no glass, so on a dull day it relies on whatever escapes from the bedrooms. If those doors are shut, you climb the last few steps by the switch.

Over the stairwell or through the loft

Roof window above the stair

A view of the sky
Light falls the full stair
Needs a fairly open loft

Sun tunnel to the ceiling

Works past a turning stair
Little loft space taken
Even light, no view

The roof is directly overhead, which makes the fix simple in principle. A rooflight over the stairwell drops daylight onto the treads and the landing boards. Where the loft above is open, the opening is short and direct. Where the loft is boarded for storage, a lined and insulated light well is formed through it so that the floor space is hardly touched.

There is a second route when the stair turns or a bedroom sits under the ridge. A sun tunnel gathers daylight in a small roof dome and passes it along a mirrored tube to a round diffuser set flush with the ceiling. You do not get a view of the sky, but little room is lost and the diffuser can sit right over the top step. At the survey we start on the landing, chalk the patch that needs daylight, and only then climb into the loft to see if the rafters allow an opening above it.

Choosing between the two is rarely a matter of taste. It follows the stair, the loft and what you want to see from the landing, and the comparison below sets the two side by side.

Landing below, tiles above, and a short gap between them to close.

Callout 2

What sits under the tiles of an older house

Desford's older buildings include a brick house with a timber frame and an early 18th-century brick service wing, and on a house like that the brick is only the outer skin. Behind it are timbers that were cut and set by hand, and they rarely sit on a tidy grid. A rooflight opening has to work with the rafters as they are, not as a drawing would like them to be, so the first look in the loft matters as much as the first look at the room.

The covering counts too. Clay and concrete tiles are laid in overlapping courses, and the flashing round a rooflight must follow those courses so that water runs off the frame and not behind it. On an old roof, tiles beside the opening can be brittle or slipped. We swap them while we are on the roof, so the frame goes into covering that will last.

Where the roofline matters, a conservation rooflight is the sensible pick. Its thin metal frame and single central glazing bar keep it nearly flush with the tiles, so it reads as part of the roof and not as a modern window. A standard roof window is often the better fit for a later house or a rear slope, where the outline is of less concern. We explain both at the survey and show how each would sit on your roof.

What gets written down in the loft

How far apart the rafters run: caps the width of the frame
Where purlins and ties cross: can pull the opening higher or lower
Age and type of tile: fixes the flashing and any new tiles
Thickness of ceiling insulation: shapes the lining of a light well
Slope facing the road: flagged for the planning check

Callout 3

Sizing the glass, and what moves the quote

Bigger is not always better on a stair or in a small bedroom. The right size is the one that puts daylight on the spot without overheating the room in summer or leaking warmth in winter, and we talk through that trade-off with you, using your own room as the example. A tall, narrow opening suits a stairwell because it follows the shape of the shaft, while a wider one suits a bedroom where daylight should reach across a bed or desk. Positions matter as much as dimensions, so both are marked out with tape on the ceiling before the quote is written, and you can stand under the outline and judge it for yourself.

Glazing makes a difference to comfort. Double glazing with a low-emissivity coating is a sound baseline for a rooflight on a house, and triple glazing is worth a conversation for a room that is cold in winter. Either way the unit has to meet the thermal limits in the Building Regulations. The targets differ by product. A roof window follows the window figure, whereas for rooflights and lanterns the ceiling is 2.2 W/m²K.

Once agreed, your quote is written down and fixed. The list below shows what pushes a figure up or down, which is why two similar-looking openings can be quoted differently.

What shifts the quote on a Desford job

Overall size of the openingWider and taller openings need longer trimmers and a bigger unit.
Light well through a boarded loftLining and insulating the shaft adds labour and materials.
Type of glazingTriple glazing or a special coating changes the unit cost.
Roof covering around the openingBrittle or mismatched tiles may need replacing first.
Equipment to reach the roofA steep or awkward route to the roof takes longer to set up.

Callout 4

Planning in Desford, and who to ask

Planning decisions in Desford are made by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, and anything specific to one street is answered on the council's own pages at hinckley-bosworth.gov.uk. We research your own street ahead of the visit, so the answer is ready when we arrive.

A house can often add a rooflight through permitted development, and that allowance has strings attached. Our planning guide lays them out and links the government source. Living in a flat or maisonette closes the householder route altogether. Listed status brings a consent requirement of its own for most changes. If your street is a designated conservation area, an Article 4 direction could have switched the allowance off, so put the question to the planners first.

Planning and Building Regulations are two separate matters. New roof openings count as building work. Where a job needs notifying, we send the Building Control notification through the local authority or a registered building control approver. Replacing an existing window like for like is regulated too, and whatever goes in must reach today's thermal figure.

From framework knitters to Station Road

Desford is a village of about 3,800 people, and its roofs reflect a long and varied story. A Domesday entry of 1086 records the village, and for several centuries the residents worked the land, farming strips in open fields and grazing animals on the lower ground. In the early 1700s a cottage industry took hold, since the first mention of framework knitting in the village is dated 1704. By the 1851 census more than a hundred framework knitters were recorded in the parish. A trade carried out at home can leave its mark on small houses.

Coal mining became a large industry across west Leicestershire in the 1800s, and a coal-hauling railway ran through the parish from 1832. The nearest pit, Desford Pit, was two miles away and employed Desford people until it closed in 1984. The larger houses along Station Road were built for middle-class commuters, so the village was already drawing a different kind of resident by then.

The parish sits on a hill about 400 feet above sea level, and it includes the hamlets of Botcheston and Newtown Unthank as well as a scattered settlement at Lindridge. Houses on high ground take more weather, so fixings and flashings are chosen for exposure, and we record the compass direction of every slope we might use.

Putting this together, a Desford survey might find any of several roofs. An older brick cottage may have a steep slope, small rooms and an unbroken tile covering that wants a low frame. A larger commuter-era house may have loft space big enough for a roof window serving a new bedroom or study. A newer house at the village edge may have a shallower tiled roof, and perhaps a single-storey extension behind it with room for a rooflight laid flat or a small lantern.

Whichever applies, the starting point is the same. Tell us which spot is dim, whether it is the landing, the bench or the bed, and we work back from there to the opening, the frame and the glass.

Look at the ceiling inside as well as the roof outside. The opening is cut through the plasterboard too, and the sloped lining that carries light down into the room is part of the job. A wider, splayed lining spreads daylight further, so we discuss its shape with you before work begins.

Desford roof questions, answered

My Desford house is older brick with some timber framing. Can it take a rooflight?

Usually it can, provided the rafters and ties leave room for a frame where the daylight is wanted. We check the timbers in the loft at the survey, set the opening out to suit them, and choose a frame that sits low on the tiles if the roofline matters to you.

Does living on a hill affect the choice of rooflight?

It affects the fixing and flashing more than the glass. A slope that takes the full weather gets a frame and flashing detail chosen for exposure, and we record the compass direction of the slope before any sizing begins.

Which council do I ask about permission in Desford?

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council is the planning authority. The conditions that come with permitted development for rooflights are covered in our planning guide, and the council can confirm what applies to your street.

The loft above my landing is full of boxes. Can light still get down?

Yes. We form a lined and insulated light well through the loft, or fit a sun tunnel that needs far less room. Either leaves the rest of the loft floor free for storage, and we decide between them when we see the space.

How long does it take to fit one rooflight?

For a straightforward single rooflight fitting one is typically a one-to-two-day roof job. A light well, a turning stair or new tiles around the opening can add time, and the written quote says what is planned.

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Where do you want the light? Tell us in the form: the worktop, the stair, the desk.

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We cover Derby and 30 miles around.